The city plans to pay $3.1 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department alleging Chicago Police Department residency requirements discriminated against 47 foreign-born applicants seeking to become police officers.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago on behalf of two men whose police applications were rejected in 2006 and 2008 because they had not lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years, as the department's guidelines required at the time.

As soon as the suit was filed, lawyers in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division notified U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman that a settlement had been reached, court records show.

The city's Finance Committee is expected to take up the issue of settling the case for $3.1 million at its regular meeting on Monday, according to the committee agenda. The full City Council could vote on the settlement as early as Wednesday.

The lawsuit has been in the works for some time and is not related to the Justice Department's broader civil rights investigation of the Police Department's use of force prompted by the fallout over the court-ordered release in November of the disturbing video of an officer shooting teen Laquan McDonald 16 times.

According to the suit, Massood Khan, who was born in India, and Glenford Flowers, a native of Belize, each passed the Police Department's written examinations but were subsequently rejected for hiring because they had not lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years.

In 2008, both Khan and Flowers complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found that they and other similar applicants had been discriminated against based on their national origin, according to the suit. The EEOC then referred the matter to the Justice Department.

In addition to back pay, interest on lost wages and compensatory damages for the 47 applicants who were discriminated against, the lawsuit asked that the city change its hiring policies so that the residency requirement cannot be used as a "pass/fail screening device."

The "continuous residency requirement" was established to ensure that the Police Department could conduct proper background checks on any applicants. In 2011, the city lowered the requirement from 10 years to five years.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 06, 2016, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "City to pay $3.1 million to settle cop suit - Foreign-born applicants claimed residency rules discriminatory" —
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